Partnership
by BloodPuddles
Summary: Gaara is now 15 years old. Itachi, still in the Akatsuki, still needs a replacement partner as Kisame is now dead. What kind of problems will arise when the two are partnered up? Completely DEAD story now.


Partnership

Disclaimer: I do not own any Naruto characters used in this fanfic.

a/n: Gaara is now 15 years old and this kind of goes off the main Naruto timeline. He is NOT a goody-goody now. Also, he has learned now to rely on sand of his fighting skills. Gaara's pretty strong now.

-

A young man was sitting on the roof of the main house of the sand village. His hair was blood-red and his eyes had dark rings around them. He was watching the moon today, which was full.

Gaara's mind was deep in thought. '_Why me? Why, out of all of the village, my father thought that I was the one fit to hold Shukaku? Damnit, why couldn't it have been Temari or Kankuro? Damn father, it's all his fault. Not mine, as the villagers always think. I'm not the demon.'_

Finally, it was dawn, the light behind the dune revealed itself and Gaara shielded his eyes.

_'Why the hell am I still here in this scorpian pit anyway? I should've left long ago. I hate this frickin' village, what did they expect? I was born to hate. The only thing that I could ever trust is my sand. It won't backstab me as Yashamaru did me. I can trust it...'_

The redhead stands up and pauses. Admiring the desert around him. For those few minutes, everything was calm. He jumped off the roof and landed on the sand. He walked in to check that no one was awake. Temari stirred a little, but nothing else happened.

Gaara walked slowly to the gate separating the village from the wide terrain of sand. The gate was gently pushed by the sand and he walked out. Looking back, he sighed. What was this feeling?

He took another step. It was easier now.

A guard went to his usual post hoping that no one knew that he was gone during the night. A figure was disappearing into the searing sun. The guard made to call out, but as he noticed the large, bulky gourd, he was relieved that the figure was finally gone.

He didn't report who left the village.

-

A cloaked man was sitting by the fire, he didn't notice anything else but the flickering flame. Blood-red Sharingan stayed fixed on the heat. On his cloak, red clouds were sewn on, and the high collar had almost covered the delicate features on his face. A straw hat lay on the floor, oncared for was in a position as if it had been thrown there. The man was thinking.

His partner was dead, killed by an ANBU. No wonder who, it was the bitchy, weak, little brother; Sasuke. How foolishly proud he was, but he still froze with anger when he saw Itachi. Sasuke was only a bit stronger, that avenger.

Some of the other akatsuki members were away on other missions. Only a few were still there at headquarters.

_'Great,'_ Thought Itachi, _'the less, the merrier...'_

-

Gaara is still walking and he squints his eyes at the setting sun. There was a sign out, but he could not see it as it was all black because of the light. So he walked closer and it took time for his eyes to adjust to the light-change.

"Sabaku Hi Inn" It said in peeling letters, under it, it said the breakfast, lunch, and dinner times. They weren't important, Gaara just needed a place to stay. The door seemed to be broken so that it didn't hang straight, and the windows were cracked.

There seemed to be barely anyone there. Only a few people drinking some Sake and discussing, what in their minds, seemed like something important.

The woman at the desk seemed like she didn't belong to the dingy, run-down room. Her outfit was clean and matched. Her face was filled with welcome and joy, that all disappeared when she opened her eyes to who walked in.

She seemed to have lost her voice at first, and instead of saying something welcoming, her voice, filled with dread, whispered out, "You... y-you are S-Sa-Sabaku no G-g-gaara!" Gaara glared at her as if to say 'so what?'

"I want a room, if you don't mind," Gaara said. "Don't you frickin' dare say there's no more..."

She sputtered and said, "A room... a room... you're very lucky, there's only one left." Gaara makes to pay, but... "Oh no, it-it's on the house!"

As the teen walks away from the front desk, the terrified girl mutters something, but Gaara doesn't care, his attention was on something else. Two people were talking in the corner, they seemed regular and no one would usually pay attention, but something drew Gaara to them.

They were dressed like regular peasants in the desert, but what they were discussing...

"Any new rumors, Takai, it seems that it's been kind of quiet these days. I wouldn't be very surprised if you haven't heard anything either."

"Well, Fujita, I have... I've heard that the Konoha ANBU have gotten a lead on where the Akatsuki are. Though... the info seems very unlikely, why would an organization that doesn't want anyone to come knocking on their door be hiding out near the sea soomewhere?"

"Hasn't one of them been killed though?"

"Yeah, I heard, that Uchiha Itachi's partner, Kisame has been killed by, what do you know, the Uchiha's little brother, Sasuke."

Gaara didn't need any more information. He had to seek out the Akatsuki.

And he didn't head up the stairs, instead, he stode out the door and the girl called out, "Wait! The key!"

He had enough of the screechy voice, "Sabaku sousou..." He muttered and listened to her scream.

"Here's your damn keys!" He shouted as he disappeared into the sand.

-

The rain pounded the ceiling of the supposedly abandoned warehouse in the forest.

Itachi was still sitting by the fireplace. He's been sitting there a lot now. It was very quiet. That's what he liked about the Akatsuki. It's _always_ quiet. The reason was that sometimes there were less people to cause noise. Missions are rare, but they happen. The silence surrounded everyone here. Some nins would go crazy, but the missing-nin were suited just fine with this. The only sounds were maybe someone stretching or stirring around. Or the door, that creaked open whenever a member came back. Sometimes a member didn't come back at all.

This was one of the rare moments when the door creaked open. For a while, everyone didn't turn there head to see the stranger, a few quiet seconds passed and finally, a member looked around. That caused a chain reaction and pretty soon, all the other member's were turning their head to see. Itachi stayed still, back still facing the open, creaking door.

A hissing sound caught Itachi's attention, was it Orochimaru? No, Orochimaru wouldn't dare show his pale face around after he'd left. Or he'd better not. Curiosity got the better of the 20-year-old and he finally got up from his chair and stood facing the door.

A teen was at the door. He was about 15 and his hair was blood-red. It looked more sinister than usual with the rain mingling with it. His eyes were lined dark and he was wearing sashes that were almost pure-white. A bulky and heavy-looking gourd hung limply at his back supported by the milky sashes. The young man stared with his livid sea-colored eyes, waiting for someone to at least say something.

"Who are you?" A member named Tomi asked cautiously. but he didn't seem to care whether Gaara answered or not.

"Gaara turned his head and calmly answered, "Sabaku no Gaara, and I have come for information about and to join the Akatsuki." He stretched out his neck and a small crack was to be heared if you were quiet enough. "I expect there must be some kind of requirement, I would be deeply surprised if there wasn't."

No one seemed to have anything to say to that. The silence didn't get to linger long, because Tomi suddenly spoke up, "Yes, there is a requirement, you have to defeat one of us in a battle. And since I have been the one to speak first, I shall be your opponent."

Gaara looked at the person he would be fighting, and decided that he would be a fair fight, but you can't be sure with the Akatsuki, because they're all S-rank. He started to asked "Now?" but didn't have the chance, for sand suddenly rushed to his back to shield him from a kick.

Gaara wasn't very prepared, but he'd acted as quickly as he possibly could. "...Shunshin no Jutsu..."

Tomi's kunai met air as it flew violently through the large cloud of sand. Tomi couldn't see anything. Especially the brat. Where was he? Tomi sat down to listen or to sense or whatever he does. This was one of Tomi's secret techniqes.

His hands flew up and he made a few seals. Then, he took a meditating pose. Waiting, he started to hum a low sound...

His voice suddenly turned into a soft whisper. No one could interprit what he was saying.

A minute or two passed and his eyes few open! A hand reached inside his holster and he threw it harshly up at the ceiling.

_SHHHH!_

It was the sound of quickly moving sand.

The kunai missed red hair only by a second! Gaara was standing on the floor now. But he had no time to do anything as a kick was suddenly connecting with his chest. Gaara flew backwards and hit the wall. A corner of his face was a clearly visible crack.

Tomi appeared behind Gaara and held a kunai to his neck. The red-head stood still for a moment and then ducked as sand back-grabbed Tomi. The desert dirt was surrounding Tomi and he seemed to disappear in a cloud of dust.

A log was in his place.

"So basic, and yet so useful." said a voice that seemed to come from all the walls.

Gaara's knees suddenly felt weak and he fell as he discovered what caused it. Tomi had kicked the back of them, causing the fall.

A jagged dagger came into the view of Gaara's face and his reflects made him raise his hands up to block it. The sand rushed up too to protect the teen.

Which protected more? His hands or the sand, it was hard to tell, as Tomi swung the dagger so hard that Gaara's hands and sand only got to block _half_ the damage. The sand was flying away and into the view was blood dripping and rolling down a hand over the teen's face. A droplet fell onto his cheek and rolled down near to where Gaara's ears were.

Gaara bit his lip and sprung back up, pushing Tomi's hand away, he had been harmed. Tomi was so surprised his prized dagger dropped onto the floor with a large clatter. The red-head forgot his sand and punched, his attacks were getting dodged, and he punched harder.

They were backing up into the wall now, Gaara's fists swinging foreward and getting dodged, but when they approached the wall, the teen's fist colided with the dusty wood. Sand spreaded from the small crater and wrapped around Tomi.

Tomi's hand was struggling, but it couldn't budge from the wall. The sand was spreading fast and in about a minute, Tomi's whole body was blanketed in sand and he started choking. Gaara stood in front of him, smiling.

Tomi continued to gag and a gentle voice sighed and said calmly:

"Enough..."

Everything stopped like a clock without energy. Even Gaara's sand loosened its grip on Tomi.

"I see that you are enough... Tomi, show Gaara to his room and I'll contact Makai-sama right now.

Tomi grumbled but stopped as Itachi's stern look shot through him like a bullet. He motioned for the sand nin to follow him and led him down a mess of halls leading to a room at the end. The room had dull, dingy cement walls that had been broken in chunks at some parts of it. Some blood was splattered around the nasty cot. The whole room smelled strangely of fish.

Gaara sighed. This was going to be hard... Fuckin' hard...

-

This is the new-and-improved version of chapter one/two! So it's chapter 1.2.2! And here's the improvements that I've made here.

-changed present tense to past tense  
-added the guard in the beginning.  
-replaced Itachi's thinking with just describing his thoughts  
-added more description  
-replaced two Akatsuki members with two peasants  
-added the "key problem"  
-rephrased the note  
-replaced Kuro with Tomi  
-expanded the (still horribly short) fight scene (that still sucks).

Keep checking back for the new-and-improved other chapters!


End file.
